Thursday, January 20, 2005

Lexia: software package for reading instruction w/ "phonemic awareness"

Lexia Library

Phonemic awareness is the PC term for phonics (ok, some say phonics follows "phonemic awareness", but I think practically speaking it's understood to mean "phonics"). Lexia is one of a myriad of pre-packaged commercial producst sold to schools to teach education. They're sold for a high price to school systems; typically a lower cost version is sold for family/home use.

Our schools system (Ramsey) is experimenting with Lexia, Earobics and the "Sunday system" (sp?). It looks like we'll get family exposure to Lexia; including buying a copy for our home. I'll provide a review here later. (They provide both Mac and Windows version. I assume the Mac version requires Classic. Buyers of the newest Macs have to install Classic separately.)

This web page provides some of the background and marketing material for the Lexia methodology. It looks like it's a good overall orientation to this class of reading instruction methodology.

Another page describes the program designers. There's a strong Orton-Gillingham (phonics) influence and a fairly strong Massachusett's General Hospital reading clinic influence. They seem to be on board the "No Child Left Behind Train", which is pretty good for a group from sin city (Boston). I wonder if they have friends in Kennedy's office. In any case, it looks like a promising team for a reading instruction package.

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